When Qilan woke up the next day and saw that both of Liang Jianshi’s ankles were wrapped in bandages, she felt a little embarrassed.
When Liang Jianshi came out of the walk-in closet, she climbed onto his leather shoe, looked up at him with innocent eyes, and let out a series of mews.
Liang Jianshi looked at her coldly. “Get off.”
Qilan didn’t move. She drew out her meow, “What more do you want from me! I came to apologize, didn’t I!”
Liang Jianshi: “This is your way of apologizing?”
Qilan meowed even louder, “Fine, I’m sorry! Are you satisfied now?!”
Liang Jianshi had no choice but to give in. He glanced up at the ceiling and walked forward with the little ornament hanging off his shoe like a compass.
In the kitchen, he prepared her cat food and placed it in front of her. Seeing that Liang Jianshi wasn’t angry anymore, Qilan happily jumped off his shoe and began noisily eating her breakfast.
Liang Jianshi looked down at his shoe, which now had a few little paw prints on it. He paused for a moment, then withdrew the hand that had been about to wipe them off.
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
Liang Jianshi’s morning meeting lasted fifty minutes. According to his usual workflow, he would next go over material details with project managers overseas, with a twenty-minute break in between.
The company executives filed out of the living room one by one, and the suite fell quiet again. Liang Jianshi walked in from outside and saw the little cat lady resting her head on her paws, watching a TV drama on a tablet.
He walked over, crouched down, gently picked her up, and placed her on the coffee table.
“Let’s play a game. Jump toward me, and I’ll catch you.”
As he said this, his tired face took on a faint glow of warmth. It seemed that engaging in this simple, silly game allowed him to relax from his busy work.
Qilan thought about how well he usually cared for the cat and was happy to help him out with this little favor.
The fluffy cat rubbed her paws together on the coffee table, took half a step back, gathered herself, spread her four paws, and leaped forward.
She had expected to arc gracefully through the air and land smoothly on Liang Jianshi’s lap. But she had underestimated herself. The moment she left the table, she plummeted straight down. She was terrified.
Just as disaster seemed inevitable, Liang Jianshi reacted quickly, thrusting his hand forward and catching the little cat ball just millimeters from the ground.
Qilan placed a paw over her pounding little heart and let out a sigh of relief.
After Liang Jianshi placed her back on the table, she prepared for a second attempt.
To her surprise, it was actually quite fun. After several tries, with her growing control over her body and Liang Jianshi’s hands-on guidance, she was jumping farther and farther.
Just as the break time was about to end, Liang Jianshi picked her up and scratched her chin.
Her cat thoroughly enjoyed this kind of massage.
But her human rationality made her resist. She opened her mouth to bite him when she suddenly heard him speak.
“I’m sorry about what caused your stress reaction. I’ll be more considerate in the future.”
Hearing his apology, Qilan blinked in surprise and looked up at him.
Liang Jianshi looked down at her as well.
“So from now on, if you’re in danger, jump toward me, just like we practiced. I’ll catch you, no matter what. Don’t hide from me again like you did yesterday, okay?”
Qilan’s eyes widened.
There was an emotion in Liang Jianshi’s eyes that she couldn’t quite understand, like an endless wilderness, holding its breath, patiently waiting for something.
Liang Jianshi smiled softly, gently yet with a hint of bitterness. “A handshake to make up?”
Qilan kept her eyes on him, then hesitantly extended her paw and placed it in his hand.
Liang Jianshi shook her paw twice, his smile deepening.
Qilan stared at him without blinking, thinking with surprise: “So Liang Jianshi can smile like this.”
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
Liang Jianshi didn’t finish his afternoon meeting. He received a phone call, some kind of emergency, and left several shareholders behind, with a capable subordinate taking over to continue the meeting.
He didn’t even pack any luggage. He picked up Qilan, who was happily lapping up milk, and spoke softly in her ear, saying goodbye. “I’m leaving. Be good and wait for me to come back, alright?”
Qilan: “Mew,” “If you’re leaving, just leave. Why come specially to tell me? With that time, you could have packed a few clothes.”
It was clear Liang Jianshi was reluctant to part with the cat, but the cat showed no reluctance at all, eagerly escaping from his hands to continue enjoying her milk.
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
At a renowned star-rated lounge in the city, an employee of the international hotel sat on the terrace. Across from her was the glamorous socialite Lin Anyuan.
“Miss Hu, are you using your position to investigate me?”
Hu Lu smiled appropriately. “Of course not. Miss Lin brought a pet into the hotel without our staff discovering it in time, resulting in Mr. Liang’s cat being injured. That was our oversight, and we certainly don’t blame Miss Lin. We simply need to clarify the sequence of events so we can offer Mr. Liang appropriate compensation.”
Lin Anyuan didn’t put on any airs. Instead, her tone was very amiable. “This is entirely my fault. My cousin loves animals. He heard that Mr. Liang had adopted a stray cat and really wanted to see it, but since the cat was with Jianshi, I couldn’t refuse him and brought him along. I thought he was carrying a backpack; I never expected there to be a dog inside. And that dog didn’t make a sound the entire time. So it’s truly not your hotel’s fault. It’s definitely our responsibility. I don’t think Jianshi will blame you.”
As dusk fell, a few raindrops began to fall.
Hu Lu was thinking of representing the hotel to apologize to Liang Jianshi when she ran into him in the elevator.
They exchanged a few words before he got into his car. Liang Jianshi seemed to be in a great hurry, and before Hu Lu could say anything more, the sedan pulled into the driveway.
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
Qilan, a tiny cat, was lounging on the small sofa like a lazybones, thinking about how she would play later, when she saw someone push the door open. The woman at the front gave orders, methodically directing the staff to start moving things.
When Qilan saw Hu Lu, she was utterly shocked.
Regardless of what she was doing, someone at her level had no authority to enter the presidential suite. Yet not only had she entered, but she was also brazenly moving things. What was going on?
This question remained unanswered even when Qilan was caught in a pet carrier and taken to an unfamiliar house.
The house was American-style, with olive-green walls and mahogany furniture. Looking at the staircase nearby, it seemed to be a three-story townhouse.
Qilan couldn’t understand why someone would rush in with a team to move a cat.
Did Liang Jianshi know about this?
“Hey! Liang Jianshi, your beloved cat has been kidnapped, aren’t you coming back?”
Qilan rubbed her furry paws together and hid in the shadows of a set of side cabinets in the new house, observing Hu Lu outside.
Hu Lu acted like a leader, assigning tasks with authority. She was efficient and finished quickly.
After everyone left, Hu Lu found some cat food, soaked it in goat milk, and placed it by the windowsill. She tapped the counter unceremoniously. “Time to eat.”
Qilan ignored her.
“Since when did the director favor Hu Lu so much? Now she’s being sent to handle VIP matters?”
Seeing that the cat wouldn’t listen, Hu Lu didn’t indulge her. She showed no sympathy or affection for the fragile little kitten. “Fine. You’ll come out to eat when you’re hungry.”
Hu Lu really didn’t bother with Qilan. After saying her piece, she sat on the sofa looking at her phone. But she seemed very anxious, as if something troubling was making her restless.
Qilan was almost falling asleep waiting when Hu Lu finally left with her phone, presumably for some business.
Qilan climbed up to the windowsill to look at the bowl of cat food and nearly threw up.
“As a human, I would rather die than eat cat food!”
Qilan was furious. “Damn Liang Jianshi, apologizing to me in the morning, then sending Hu Lu to bully me at night. I’m such a fragile cat. If she torments me to death, let’s see how devastated he’ll be.”
She let out a cold snort from her cat’s nose and, with a “smack” of her paw, knocked the cat food off the windowsill.
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
One advantage of Liang Jianshi’s absence was that Hu Lu wasn’t as watchful as he was. She often neglected her duties and left her post without permission, giving Qilan plenty of opportunities to sneak out.
Qilan didn’t eat the cat food, but Hu Lu gave her supplemental meals in the afternoon, goat milk, and small amounts of meat. After countless fights with Hu Lu, Qilan was following her, looking for a chance to cause her trouble, when she discovered a small storage room upstairs. Inside the refrigerator were piles of canned tuna.
Soon, Qilan had scouted the route. The house was on the first floor, with a garden outside. Squeezing through a hole in the wall led to the same abandoned garden she had visited before. Going forward through the staff passage, she could reach her dorm.
In that case, why not bring some food to her human self?
Qilan thought she was brilliant. And so began her diligent transportation work.
As a cat, she would carry the cans to the abandoned garden where no one went. Then, as a human, she would sneak to the garden to retrieve them.
She was constantly on guard against Hu Lu and was never caught once.
On the third night, Qilan had just crawled out of the hole when she saw Lin Anyuan standing right in front of her.
Her instincts told her something was wrong. She tried to run, but Lin Anyuan had brought quite a few people, all of them closing in to catch her.
“She was just a cat. Why did they keep coming after her?”
Qilan wasn’t a real cat, after all, and had no special training. She lunged toward the bushes, and with a metallic clang, she heard the sound of a latch closing. Only then did she realize there was a cage inside.
“Humans were so cunning!”
Lin Anyuan and her companions gathered around to claim their prize. Qilan shrank back into the depths, looking at this group of people who seemed like scientists about to take her back for dissection. She felt another stress reaction coming on.
Just as her chest began to heave, she suddenly heard hurried footsteps.
A man in uniform stepped in front of the cage. “A late-night visit, what urgent matter brings you here?”
Lin Anyuan introduced the person beside her: “This is a very reputable veterinary team from abroad. Since the kitten is so young and was a stray, we came to give her a check-up. If necessary, it would be better to give her a vaccine. After all, she’s still too young to retract her claws, and if she hurts someone, it would be troublesome. I just happened to see her in the garden. I thought you had accidentally let her escape, so I helped catch her.”
You couldn’t slap a smiling face. The uniformed man looked troubled. Just as Lin Anyuan sensed an opening, a figure appeared on another path. With assertive words, an imposing presence, wind at his heels, and a team behind him.
“That’s none of your concern. Who said the cat needs to be caged? The cat was playing in the garden just fine. Bringing people to catch her like this will cause her stress. If you’re such a renowned veterinary team, shouldn’t you have at least that much common sense?”
Lin Anyuan’s expression stiffened. “I heard Jianshi wasn’t here, so I thought…”
“Don’t use Liang Jianshi as an excuse. He asked me to take care of this cat! He never said you, Lin Anyuan, could come near her!”
Lin Anyuan was stunned.
Qilan also looked at Hu Lu in surprise. She didn’t understand why she saw such intense anger on her face.
Hu Lu stepped closer aggressively, causing Lin Anyuan to step back in fright.
“Can’t you see the house has been changed? Can’t you see the extra security? All of this happened after your unauthorized entry to the 72nd floor! Isn’t it obvious? You’re not welcome here!”
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
In the damp forest, everything happening in the secluded area of the hotel was transmitted to a tablet through cameras.
After three strange bird calls, a man drenched in sweat ran under a tree, swallowing nervously and lowering his voice to a whisper.
“Mr. Liang, we found what was buried.”